freecodecampguam.github.io

The website for Free Code Camp Guam

freeCodeCampGuam is Back!

Dear parents, guardians, and community members,

We are back! Thank you for your patience and understanding in regards to our hiatus. We are glad to announce that our facilitators are refreshed and our activities will resume.

Here are the highlights of this message below for your convenience:

Meet-up will now take place on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Times and venues will be announced on our social media outlets in advance.

All minors will need to have a signed waiver of liability or have a parent chaperone be present with them for the duration of the meet-ups.

Meet-ups will now no longer be facilitator-driven, it is the responsibility of each participant to self-direct and paces their individual coding projects and education.

The freeCodeCampGuam team would like to start off by saying thank you for your patience in regards to our temporary hiatus for coding meet-ups. The team was able to take a good break and recharge while reflecting on our successful summer activities.

The biggest change we have decided on is that meetings will now occur TWICE A MONTH on the FIRST AND THIRD SATURDAYS of the month. Venue and times will be announced on our social media outlets well in advanced.

The next topic we would like to address in this message is in regards to the terms of liability with meet-up members who are still minors (below the age of 18). In past meet-ups, the facilitators did not mind assuming liability as we had a secure venue for meet-ups. However, with the meet-ups going back to public venues (cafes, libraries, etc.), the team feels that it would be in everyone’s best interest to NOT assume that freeCodeCampGuam be held liable for any of its members, minors or not, should anything that may cause harm to occur during a meet-up. Should you still wish for your child(ren) still participate in meet-ups, signing a waiver of liability form or the presence of a parent/guardian to act as a chaperone will be required. Please keep in mind that freeCodeCampGuam is a volunteer-driven group and is not an official entity – neither a non-profit organization or a for-profit organization, and therefore we have no insurance policies in place.

The last topic we would like to discuss in in regards to the direction we would like meet-ups to go from here-on-out. During our facilitator meeting, we decided that we would like to incorporate a more career-focused mindset with our meetings. To be more specific, we would like our future meet-ups to achieve the following goals:

Expose and introduce meet-up participants to coding in hopes of inspiring them to consider a career in Tech/Coding.

Be a positive environment for those already working on coding projects to be able to bounce around ideas from peer-to-peer.

Be a consistent form of accountability for those looking to start/improve upon their coding skills.

What this means is that we will be shifting from a teaching role to a facilitator role when it comes to coding during the meet-ups. We will happily start a member off with resources that are intended to build up a solid foundation in coding and answer any questions they may have. However, we will no longer be directing members on specific projects (like games, websites, apps, etc). Instead, it will be the member’s responsibility to come up with their own project ideas and work independently on them. The meet-ups purpose will not be like a training/class and we are not expecting projects to be submitted with a deadline, or even submitted at all.

Thank you so much for all of the trust and time you have given to freeCodeCamp Guam. We look forward to having more fun and interesting conversations as we all learn to improve our coding capabilities!